Gideon Malherbe

There are a few rather profound second order consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. By second order, we mean not readily visible, or in your face, or what the press and talking heads are going on about. Let’s look at 3 examples of second order consequences: Government Intervention The state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China’s war against…

The advent of COVID-19 in December 2019 saw governments, think tanks and business leaders rapidly fretting about the potential scale and scope of this novel pandemic. Soon the strategic conversation settled on projected rates of infection and the ability of healthcare infrastructures to cope with potentially surging demand. With these projections varying widely, we created…

With the advent of COVID-19, we have many executives getting overwhelmed daily by crisis issues. For example: Can I charge employees’ leave days against their stay at home orders? Does PPP include commissions? Can I dismiss someone who doesn’t show up to virtual work sessions? And so on. It’s easy to get paralyzed in considering…

Leadership capacity is the ability to effectively lead your team when your energy and their energy is getting diverted to a multitude of critical issues. To not succumb and freak out, you are required to apply clear thinking that targets the most crucial elements of leading your team. Your state of mind during these crisis…

Over the past 30 years, VCI has conducted literally hundreds of Scenario Planning workshops for clients wanting to add greater dimension to their Strategic Planning processes. Scenario Planning is a specific technique that helps an enterprise create several storylines, each with a series of strategic action plans. One of the unique and very useful tools…

A big problem with machine learning is the notion that it’s a black box. The production or logistics process is fully “sensored” up and the black box tells operators what to do. There is no understanding nor clarity about the logic behind the instructions. Many developers are now designing new machine learning algorithms that are…

Here’s a fundamental test for your company’s Digital Transformation in 2020. First, on the negative side – What elements of your offering are going to see a deterioration in revenue or price due to digital disintermediation/automation during 2020? (For example, most stock broking firms had to let go of their transactional costs in 2019 and…

We’ve done many digital intensity assessments and technology roadmaps that would justify a critical look at the relationship between digital deployment and employment. It is true that digitization disintermediates required human activity, not only in many rote work environments, but also in complex, decision-making processes. It is also true that digital deployment requires a very…

Digital Platform businesses have dominated market attention for many years now. The internet itself is the ultimate platform of our age and it’s the breeding ground for the evolution and proliferation of more and more digital platforms. Whereas, traditional methods of production and distribution were often limited to “push” strategies, with significant effort and resources…

If research shows that an offensive strategy adds about 5% to your EBITDA, and a defensive strategy reduces EBITDA by about 1.5%, and that 15.5% of the players that have deployed offensive platform strategies have reported extremely better results, how does one future-proof an offensive strategy in a highly volatile and unpredictable business environment? The…